Moonlight shines as Best Picture winner

If you are a fan of La La Land you were ecstatic for about 90 seconds. At the end of the ceremony La La Land was announced as the winner of the night’s biggest award, Best Picture. No one was very surprised as La La Land was the favorite to win all throughout awards season. It was only once on stage that producer Jordan Horowitz noticed a mistake had been made. He quickly took to the mic to rectify this mistake, and award the Oscar to the actual winner, Moonlight. Then began a mix of cheers and confusion as most in the crowd and even some on stage still did not know what exactly was going on. Jordan Horowitz then went on to clarify that this was in no way a joke and that Moonlight was the rightful winner. They then displayed the card from the proper envelope which indeed read Moonlight as the winner. The Moonlight team took the stage to accept the award and give their speeches. This win makes producer Dede Gardner the first woman to secure two best picture Oscars.

Heavy speculation has already been made as to how exactly a flub like this could have occurred. There was a theory about Emma Stone’s envelope being accidentally recycled but this was shot down when she revealed that she had been holding on to her envelope the entire time. The best theory at the moment stems from the Academy making duplicate envelopes for the presenters, it is believed that the duplicate envelope for best actress was given to presenter Warren Beatty before he took the stage. If you look at photos you can see that initially the envelope he is holding says best actress on the front of it.

This was a very interesting turn of events, not only because of the way it played out, but also because La La Land was the favorite to win, and Moonlight had the lowest box office gross of all of the nominated films.

La La Land did not go home empty handed though, with wins for Best Director, Score, Song, Actress, Production Design, and Cinematography it was still the biggest winner of the night. Moonlight went home other awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor Mahershala Ali. Ali became the first Muslim actor to win an Academy Award. Other big wins include Manchester By the Sea, the first film produced by a streaming service to be nominated for an Academy Award, which won for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

The broadcast itself was enjoyable, with gags such as candy raining down from the ceiling (3 times) and a busload of unsuspecting tourists being brought into the venue where the ceremony was taking place and getting to meet several celebrities in the crowd.

There were some low-moments as well, such as host Jimmy Kimmel tastelessly making a joke of Mahershala Ali’s name, saying that with a name like Mahershala he cannot “just name her Amy.” Ali brushed the joke off with class simply replying that he and his wife named their daughter Bari. Later on in the ceremony he quipped to one of the tourists brought into the ceremony that he was “ignoring all the white celebrities” to which the man replied, “I am.” There is also speculation that he reused some jokes from other comedians. One joke, in which he proclaims to have received a “sitting ovation” was identified by comedian Judah Friedlander as being a joke he originally used on the television show 30 Rock. Another joke about Andrew Garfield losing weight, like every women in Hollywood was originally said by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler three years ago at the Golden Globes.Overall, the Oscars were pretty enjoyable. Moonlight took home an incredibly deserved win and La La Land still took home the most Oscars of the night.